Day 3 -- Scrutineering

Today we had a scrutineering slot at 11am to verify regulations compliance. We passed, with the exception of the battery examination. Because our battery pack is still in transit to Darwin, the race officials graciously granted us permission to go through battery scrutineering later on.

Lauren (right) and Kelly (left) at driver weigh-in. Photo credit Andy Batzer.

Chopper del Sol during scrutineering. Photo credit Andy Batzer.

 Our array, propped up on its stand. Photo credit George Hansel.


The team is pretty happy that scrutineering went well. We will continue to haul ass through the next few days to get the car ready for the race. Tomorrow, we will test drive and do some fine-tuning.

Hidden Valley: Day 2 - Afternoon update

We ended up working pretty late last night to get the car ready for driving today. We still have a lot of work to do but progress is good.

A little about what's happening right now: We are at Hidden Valley, a race track near the city of Darwin. Before the race starts all teams must undergo scrutineering, where race officials inspect the car to make sure it passes all technical regulations; all cars then complete a time trial to determine start order.

The track is pretty animated right now. All teams are making last minute adjustments and modifications to get their cars in race-ready shape. It's fun to see the different vehicles and teams. Couple quick stats: There are 37 teams registered to compete as of the Scrutineering Draw announced an hour ago: http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/page/view_by_id/33

21 different countries are represented.

While part of the team works on the car the rest of the team is getting together all other race equipment. Here Bruce and Adam hold up our 8ft anemometer tower, which will be mounted on our lead car.

We still have a lot of work to do.. so it's looking like another long night. We have a couple more team members arriving tonight and tomorrow.

Chopper is at Hidden Valley!!

We spent most of the daytime finishing up errands and buying materials that we needed, anxiously waiting for our shipping agent to clear up our customs issues. At 3pm we finally got the call and sprinted over to the Darwin airport to get our trailer. By 5pm, Chopper had arrived at Hidden Valley! We unpacked all our gear and went to work immediately.

We mostly had to finish lots of detail work - the night before we went through the rules one more time and marked a couple things we had to adjust in order to comply. We also built a solar array stand for charging pre- and post-race hours. Our trailer got updated with sponsor stickers.



We left pretty late, but there were still a few teams working! We're back at the SEVT shack to a few hours of sleep, then back to the track for some more work. Stay tuned for more updates!

A good meal is easy to find (in Darwin)

After thirty hours of travel, upon arriving to our house in Darwin, Alix and Michael set out with a fresh energy for food preparation. A quick trip to the grocery store and our kitchen was stocked with makings of a delicious meal for the team: salad, mozzarella, tomatoes, delicious Darwin carrots, ground beef, and sausages (curiously marked only as "meat").

Alejandro, team captain ("el Capitan"), supervises what in Australia is known as the "barbie".

Alex (left) and Adam (right), display both their enthusiasm for the delicious salad and their unwillingness to endure Darwin's 30C (86F) heat.

After taking care of their hunger, MIT students Alejandro, Kelly, and Rachel tend to their next-most-important need: Internet. They do so while wearing the team uniform.

Fun Australia facts: the standard soda can is slightly larger than in the US (375 mL vs 355) and our house keys are made of titanium.

Chopper has been found in Darwin (happily swimming)

Patiently waiting for the carnet and their team members to arrive in Darwin, Rachel, Simon, and Alex visited the "Crocosaurus Cove" and discovered Chopper . . . though not del Sol. He seemed pretty happy, as a solar-heated reptile who weighs just about 3 times that of our Chopper.

Team in Australia

A few members arrived on Friday and the rest of the team will be here this afternoon.
Our car has arrived safely in Darwin, but we are still waiting on our Carnet to get it through customs. Hopefully we can get that all sorted out on Monday morning and start prepping for the race.

We will post pictures in the next few days, but our current internet connection is a bit too slow for that.We will also be updating our progress on our new twitter account @ChopperdelSol
We also have satellite phones with a data plan thanks to SatellitePhoneStore.com and will be able to send out pictures and updates while racing in the Outback!

Thank you to all our sponsors who have helped us get here. We are all excited to race!

Solar Car begins its journey to Darwin, Australia.

‎3:56 AM EST: Chopper del Sol is secured in its trailer, ready to begin the voyage to Darwin, Australia.

Late in the night the team said goodbye to the car as it drove off to JFK Airport. The car flies out to Australia later this week. The team is quite excited as we've been extremely busy working around the clock these past several weeks to get the car in race shape.

Expect more detailed updates soon!